Did last night’s episode of Game of Thrones feature, as Josh put it, the most disturbing sex scene in television history? I don’t know. And I don’t particularly want to research it to find out. I imagine a man raping his sister at the foot of an altar their dead son is laying on has to be on the list somewhere, though. Let’s just call it top five and move along.

I’m never that excited about going to film forced sex. But the whole thing for me was about dead Joffrey lying there, watching the whole thing. (Showrunners) David (Benioff) and Dan (Weiss) loved that, and I was like, I wanted to make sure I had Jack in there as much as I could. Of course Lena and Nickola laughed every time I would say, “You grab her by the hair, and Jack is right there,” or “You come around this way and Jack is right there.”

He is their first born. He is their sin. He is their lust, and their love — their everything. If he’s gone, what’s going to happen?

Apparently the answer to that question is “millions of HBO viewers will squirm around in their seats a lot.”

Also of note: As mentioned in the recap, this scene was significantly less rape-y in the book. Here’s the relevant excerpt via the AV Club, which has a nice essay about how the show’s producers are kind of making a habit of doing that.

She kissed him. A light kiss, the merest brush of her lips on his, but he could feel her tremble as he slid his arms around her. “I am not whole without you.”

There was no tenderness in the kiss he returned to her, only hunger. Her mouth opened for his tongue. “No,” she said weakly when his lips moved down her neck, “not here. The septons…”

“The Others can take the septons.” He kissed her again, kissed her silent, kissed her until she moaned. Then he knocked the candles aside and lifted her up onto the Mother’s altar, pushing up her skirts and the silken shift beneath. She pounded on his chest with feeble fists, murmuring about the risk, the danger, about their father, about the septons, about the wrath of gods. He never heard her. He undid his breeches and climbed up and pushed her bare white legs apart. One hand slid up her thigh and underneath her smallclothes. When he tore them away, he saw that her moon’s blood was on her, but it made no difference.

“Hurry,” she was whispering now, “quickly, quickly, now, do it now, do me now. Jaime Jaime Jaime.” Her hands helped guide him. “Yes,” Cersei said as he thrust, “my brother, sweet brother, yes, like that, yes, I have you, you’re home now, you’re home now, you’re home.” She kissed his ear and stroked his short bristly hair. Jaime lost himself in her flesh. He could feel Cersei’s heart beating in time with his own, and the wetness of blood and seed where they were joined.

So there’s all that, too. Either way, the TV version or the book version, the Lannisters are a very strange family. There, I said it.

Its still super uncomfortable and messed up with their dead son right there, I still don’t feel making it more “rapey” really adds anything, I feel like they were going “Hey why not?” when they added that. And as some other people stated in other discussions on here today that feels a bit sloppy to me.

“Why not” is sloppy, I 1000% agree. Couldn’t they have just boned with Jamie being all “I’m gonna get me some of dat muthafucker that killed our little baby boy, now gimme some dat sister sugar.” Or something to that effect. Felt just like unnecessary shock value. First thing in the show I’ve been like WHY about…

Yeah I think they wanted to give Jaimie more airtime, so they brought his arrival sooner in the series, but if that was the case they totally shouldn’t have even done this scene. It’s was just used for shock value.

@The Evil Twin I think you nailed it. By bringing Jamie back too early they backed themselves into a corner and this scene didn’t make as much sense, (‘sense’ in that anything in Westeros makes any that is), and they probably should have just skipped over it. They’ve got some major work to do getting Jamie back on the road to redemption and no matter how they do it he’s always going to be “That-guy-who-raped-his-sister-next-to-their-dead-son”

Sorry but, I think after this season is over, this rape is gonna stand out as the “Why the fu*k did they change that?” scene. Jamie’s stock as a character was on the upswing and I feel they kinda shit the bed on any kind of “redemption” angle they COULD’ve had… Thank you for posting the except from the book. #claganebowl Get hype.

I don’t know how much credit I would give an article titled “Rape of Thrones”. There’s something incredibly amusing about an essay bemoaning the show going for shock value while sporting such a cringe-inducing attempt at a play on words.

Considering that scene in the book is from Jaime’s POV, one could definitely interpret it as rape when you have to film it objectively. Cersei protests the whole time, but it’s like her protests aren’t taken all that seriously on the page because we are in Jaime’s head.

no, she gives a weak protest to start and it’s about her fear of being caught. She straight up switches to asking him to take her. If the show had quickly switched to her saying “oh screw it, I want this regardless” it would have matched the book. Instead Jamie comes back early and she sounds him for some unknown reason and then says no the entire scene in the Sept.

no? i’m saying one could interpret it that way…”She pounded on his chest with feeble fists, murmuring about the risk, the danger, about their father, about the septons, about the wrath of gods. He never heard her.”

Sounds pretty rape-y to me, regardless of the outcome. I’m just saying perhaps that’s where they decided to take it.

@Yogi Yes, you could interpret it that way, period. It’s a POV chapter that no-where implies that Jaime would have actually stopped if Cersei said “no,” full stop, and more than implies he’d continue if she did. It’s perfectly plausible to interpret her enthusiasm as faked to get it over with. GRRM has since said it’s canon consent, so that’s what it means, but claiming that it’s preposterous to interpret the scene as anything other than consensual relations is absurd.

FWIW, the writer of that article also points to the Drago/Daenerys scene as evidence of misogyny, when in realty it’s an example of a bullshit cop-out by Martin; the scene in the show is way more honest – this is a 30-something warlord who owns a 14-year-old and is going to take her; that she falls in love with him still is sad but anyone who isn’t living in denial knows that this does happen, however much we may wish it weren’t so.

@nyccine No you’re simply blind. They changed the scene and the character Jaime therefore ruining his awesome story arc and turning him into a rapist. Read the AV Club article if you’re still confused.

I’d been giving Benioff and Weiss the benefit of the doubt that they were tuning down some of the more despicable things from the books, but I might have to reconsider that. Aging up a lot of the characters was their best move, or at least just not lettin’ ya know that Dany was supposed to be 14 when she was married away.

But making rape scenes more rape-y’s gonna change my mind right quick.